


How to Fly

by airamcg



Series: Fusion Jam [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katawa Shoujo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Character Study, Gen, Slice of Life, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3832864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airamcg/pseuds/airamcg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin wants to fly. </p><p>Mainly a Katawa Shoujo story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Fly

**Author's Note:**

> In the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" universe, a percentage of people can manipulate or “bend” one of the four classical elements (fire, earth, air, water) with certain movements of hands and feet reminiscent to martial arts. It is common enough that being a bender or a nonbender is treated like being born male or female-- simply a trait you were born with.

Sixth period is when everyone goes out to the track field to exercise. Everyone, except maybe those who go swimming in the pool. I’m glad I’m not one of ~~those,~~ them, because the sky today has a beautiful color. It’s the shade of when you wake up from a dream and forget all about it, except for the fuzzy feeling it leaves you the rest of the day. But the clouds look like feathers, which are not fuzzy at all. They’re... feathery, I think. Maybe there’s a better word for it. I’d ask Emi, but she’s busy running around the track with the fire people.

I don’t really like fire; it burns to touch. I wonder if the fire people are all burnt up inside, because where else would their fire come from? And why is Emi with them? She said she can’t do the thing other people do, like with fire or earth. Maybe she can and didn’t want me to know.

I hear a clang and an ugh and a thud, so I turn to look. A girl with long canary hair is holding a stick. Or a cane. I know her. She always fights with the Student Council president. She is standing over a boy from class 3 that I collected before. He has something called _aphasia_. He can’t do the thing with fire or earth or air or water, so it must be that kind of group. Maybe Emi just didn’t want to get beat up by that girl.

Huh. There are shadows moving all over the field. I look back at the sky; it’s littered with people. Flying people. I want to fly too, but they use these cane things that has wings you hold with your hands and feet. I forgot what they’re called and I can’t use them anyway-- I’d have a hard time holding on to it. So I’m sitting on this bench instead of flying. Besides, my period is being a pain in the ass. Or stomach, rather.

“Is this seat taken?”

Someone sits beside me before I could respond. A girl. First thing I notice is the glasses, then the eyes behind them. They are like topaz and chocolate, which is a delicious mix. Her hair is chocolate too, and reaches her shoulders. The girl is smiling at me. She’s not in my class but I’ve met her before, I’m just not sure when or where at the moment. Her name sounds like a giant drawing, or a dirty sound. Aah? Ooh?

“Rin Tezuka, right? From Class 4?”

“That’s me.” I ponder for a moment about what I just said. “Unless there’s another Tezuka, whose name is Rin.”

“No, I’m sure it’s just you. At least in this school.”

She takes off her glasses and starts chewing one of the ends of the part that goes behind the ear. She is watching the people flying above us. She looks like she’s one of ~~them,~~ us. But she’s sitting with me instead of flying. Maybe it has to do with what’s wrong with her. I haven’t collected her yet, so I ask. Then she laughs.

“Ahahaha. Curious, aren’t we?”

“I don’t know about you, but I am. I collect people I find interesting, you see.”

She laughs again. It sounds like water in a stream. I like it, but I don’t understand what she finds funny.

“I have a bad case of arthritis.”

She lifts her skirt a little to show me her right knee. It looks bigger than the left one, like someone's blown it up into a shriveled balloon that’s shaped like a knee, instead of just a knee.

“Oh,” I say. I feel my eyebrows stretch upwards. “I thought only old people get that.”

“I once thought so too. But here I am.”

She smiles again and doesn’t seem to mind it all that much. I think that’s a good thing. Together, we watch our classmates do somersaults and loopy stuff in the air. They’re all laughing and smiling, which is probably another good thing. They fall into an A formation, or an upside down V. Sort of like the birds that fly to other places before winter comes. They come in different colors, and always travel in groups. Not all of the birds can join the formation, though. I feel especially sad for the chicks that get eaten before they get the chance to fly.

“What?”

Topaz and chocolate eyes are directed at me. I must have said something out loud because she peers at me as if I did so. I nod towards our classmates flying like the travelling birds.

“Ducks. I heard they get eaten before they are born.”

“Ahh, I’ve heard about that too. Something about cooking the chick before it hatches. It’s a delicacy in other countries.”

“Delicacy.” I close my eyes and let the word roll in my mouth to savor its meaning. “So they’re delicious?”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t tried it yet.”

When I open my eyes, there’s that smile and laugh on her face again. But something seems off now when she looks back up at the sky. As I follow her gaze, I wonder if I have that off-ness too.

I’ve wanted to fly for as long as I could remember, which isn’t a very long time. I can hardly remember things for too long. But the wanting to fly has always stayed with me. Maybe because it’s something I can’t do properly, even after I've learned how to bend air. I think it’s okay if I never get to fly, I think. I can still paint, and I’m starting to wish I brought my canvas and paints down here.

Sometimes though, I can’t help wondering what it’s like to be closer to the sky— to not be stopped by anything, not even gravity. But here I am, stuck on the ground with gravity pulling my brush down. It’s just that I don’t have a brush here and I’m not painting right now. But when I do, the brush doesn’t always go where I want it to. It’s frustrating.

“Have you ever flown before?” I ask.

“My brother used to take me when I was little. I’m afraid we’re both too big for one glider now.”

Ah, glider. That’s the word I forgot.

“You can’t use one on your own?”

“My joints can’t take it. I can still lift off a bit, though.”

“Me too.”

I jump to my feet. I don’t know why I did, my feet tends to move on their own. But since I’m already up, I decided to show her. I trace a circle with my right foot, letting the air loop around my legs until I formed an airball. I twist my waist to ride it and the gust lifts me about a meter high. Then it fades and my feet slowly touch down on the ground.

It’s still not the same as flying, I think. I tell her this.

“Natsume,” called a voice that didn’t belong to me nor to the girl on the bench with me. I turn to the direction it came from and I see a girl covered in mud jogging to where we are. She’s holding an earth-ball under her arm, so she must be from the group playing kick the ball with a pillar of stone or something like that. When she sees me, she grins and gives me a wave.

“Prodigy Tezuka.”

“Hello.”

I wonder since when did my name become Prodigy. Rin isn’t my true name, that much I’m sure. It’s just something everyone calls me with. But then I doubt anyone knows what their true name is.

The muddy girl looks like a Children’s Day doll, but less neat. And with hay hair. And demon red eyes. She takes a pair of glasses from my companion, but doesn’t wear it yet. I feel like we had a really long talk before, but I don’t remember about what. Something about cheese, maybe. My face must have turned into a puzzle because she gives me the answer to what I'm trying to figure out.

“I’m Inoue, remember? From the newspaper club. I did an interview of the art club members a while back.”

"Ahh."

They leave, chattering about something I cannot hear. They walk a little closely to each other, than how other people walk with others. Their fingers brush against each other but barely.

Huh.

I look back up at the sky again.

Maybe someday, on a windy day, I too could spread my wings and fly.

**Author's Note:**

> originally written in 2012


End file.
